Using protein chemistry to solve biochemical mysteries in the environment

Proteins are the biochemical machines of the cell and can provide a seasoned chemist with a wide range of information on the status or plans of a cell. We use state-of-the-art tandem mass spectrometry technology and bioinformatic tools in order to analyze and decipher protein expression from a variety of samples from the environment. Our specialty is in the marine world. Be it particles floating in the ocean, sediments on the ocean floor, phytoplankton adapting to climate change, or bacteria surviving on hydrothermal vent plumes or in Arctic ice channels, we are interested and excited to tackle the project.

WE ARE CURRENTLY SEEKING NEW COLLABORATIONS

MetaGOmics is ready to use! This tool will allow you to examine functional and taxonomic expression between metaproteomic samples while taking into account homologous peptides and proteins that are inherent to meta-omic analyses. The first tool of its kind!!

Brook Nunn runs the environmental division of the MacCoss Lab

Brook Nunn joined the lab group of Michael MacCoss in the Department of Genome Sciences where she is a Research Assistant Professor in 2015. Historically, the Nunn lab has focused our efforts on proteomic profiling. Proteomic profiling allows the investigator to catalog all the proteins expressed at the time of harvest in an unbiased manner and is a very thorough hypothesis-generating method. This method allows us to figure out how the organism is adapting to a unique environment by globally assaying the organism's response or to find out which protein functional groups are common in preserved organic matter. Since joining the MacCoss lab group, the focus of the lab has shifted. We now include more targeted and quantitative methods. It is an exciting time to be in the proteomics field!